a bleeding purple utah jazz blog

Game 37 at CLE: Squeaking By

Peppy Patty and Negative Nellie tossed a coin to see who gets to speak first. Peppy Patty won.

PP: Big Al had probably one of his best games as a Jazzman with 25 points (9-16 from the floor and 7-8 from the FT line), 13 rebounds, and a career- and game-high 7 assists and 3 blocks with 0 turnovers. Gordon Hayward was also fantastic off the bench with 23 points (8-11 and 5-5), 4 rebounds, and 5 assists. Best of all, he was more the “Aggressive Too Big Yo Gordon” that we saw at the end of last season than the “Timid Mouse Named Shy Violet Gordon” we’ve been seeing this season.

NN: How nice for them that they got playing time. Enes Kanter, Derrick Favors, Alec Burks, and Jeremy Evans combined for 35 minutes played…total. Kanter logged just 7:33, while Evans was on the floor for less than a minute.

PP: But we’re making a Playoff push. Of course we have to go with the guys that are going to give us the best chance to win, and those are the vets.

NN: OK, Tyrone.

PP: Quit being such a Negative Nellie. We won the game! We won on the road! Our road win percentage increased from .187 to .235!

NN: The Cavs are a really bad team with a losing home record. The Jazz had a 15-point lead with less than six minutes left. The Cavs were within five with 50 seconds left and could have gotten that down to three with 12 seconds left if Ryan Hollins hadn’t missed two free throws.

PP: A win is a win!

NN: We got lucky the clock ran out before the Cavs won.

PP: A win is a win!

NN: A win may be a win, but I’d like to see a “Jazz win” win instead of a “Jazz hang on to win” win.

PP: We’re only 2.5 games back from the Playoffs!

NN: Death to more years of 8-seeddom.

Unlike Ty Corbin, poor Enes Kanter found his prayers–for his number to be called–going unanswered.

Unintentional Dirty Quote Machines of the Night (UDQM)** Boler: Booner, it’s all about penetation. (H/T @_alexisholt)** Booner: That play is designed to get a shot off.** Booner on Josh Howard: He has small hands…but long arms.** Booner: Paul Millsap deflects it, went off the chin of Alonzo.